


i hate accidents (except when we went from friends to this)

by jessicamiriamdrew



Category: Naruto
Genre: Discord: Umino Hours, Established Relationship, Gen, M/M, feat a small appearance by Ino bc i love her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:48:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24355348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessicamiriamdrew/pseuds/jessicamiriamdrew
Summary: "It hits him in the middle of the night like a jutsu aimed through his window. He signed the card Love, Kakashi."-or, the one where Kakashi accidentally signs Iruka's birthday card with love before they've actually said it to each other.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Comments: 20
Kudos: 202
Collections: 90 Mins To Gift - Iruka's Birthday





	i hate accidents (except when we went from friends to this)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NKI_Stories](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NKI_Stories/gifts).



> Nina I hope you like, I really had fun working on this!! 
> 
> this is for the Umino hours 90 min to gift exchange for Iruka's birthday! I tried to go sweet and fluffy and just a little bit of Kakashi having some self angst! my challenge parameters were the word sparkle and the color yellow! 
> 
> this is rated T for one very oblique reference to sex but erring on the side of caution.
> 
> set during Tsunade's tenure as Hokage!

“Kakashi-sensei, will you sign Iruka-sensei’s birthday card?” Sakura is holding up the very sparkley card with a pen.

“Sure,” he says, signing his name and drawing a henohenomoheji next to it. “You’re early, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Sakura says, “but Iruka-sensei is very popular and we want everyone to have a chance to sign.”

They’re good kids, Naruto and Sakura, for all that they’ve gone through. Kakashi can imagine Iruka’s flushed face when he sees all the signatures.

*

It hits him in the middle of the night like a jutsu aimed through his window. He signed the card Love, Kakashi.

Not “Happy birthday! - Kakashi” or “Have a good one - Kakashi.”

He is certain he wrote “Happy birthday Iruka-sensei. Love, Kakashi.”

He wonders if Tsunade is up this late, and if she’ll consider giving him a mission out of town for the next month. He’ll miss Iruka’s birthday, but that might be for the best.

*

“Ah, Sakura, do you have Iruka-sensei’s card?” If he can get the card back, he can accidentally drop some ink where he signed and redo his signature.

“No,” Sakura says. “It’s with team ten. But you already signed it…?” Sakura asks, a curious expression assembling on her face.

Kakashi nods at her, and shunshins out of the conversation. If Ino has the card, then Kakashi is toast.

*

Of course, he’s also in trouble because it’s Iruka’s birthday tomorrow, and he and Iruka have dinner plans. The thing between them isn’t brand new, but it’s subtle and Kakashi has never felt particularly attuned to social niceties and norms.

He doesn’t know if he can sit across from Iruka knowing that Iruka read where Kakashi wrote the word love. It’s too soon, isn’t it? 

Even though they’ve known each other for years, and have been friends most of that same time period. He’s been hoping to follow Iruka’s cues on relationship steps.

*

Ino does not have the card, but she has seen the card, if the way she’s critiquing his flower choices is anything to go by.

“I was thinking about roses,” Kakashi says, trying again, after his first suggestion was dismissed with an incredulous look. “A half dozen?” Roses are the safest, traditional choice.

“Maybe yellow roses,” Kakashi adds, considering. Iruka loves the color yellow, after all.

Ino flips her ponytail with a sigh, staring at him like he’s a pre-genin learning to hold a kunai.

“Yellow roses mean jealousy,” she says, a glimmer in her eyes. “Iruka-sensei likes sunflowers, though.”

Kakashi shrugs - the sunflowers do seem a bit more Iruka’s style, and he doesn’t want to get something that means jealousy.

Before he even says anything, Ino is assembling a bouquet of sunflowers and artfully tying an iridescent sparkle ribbon around the stems.

“On the house,” she says, face serene in the way of a teenage girl armed with juicy gossip.

It’s only when he gets home with them does he see the slip of paper she tucked in. Meaning: Respect, passionate love, radiance.

Kakashi blushes and pulls his hitai-ate down to cover both eyes. He’s really in trouble.

*

Iruka works too hard, which is why Kakashi finds himself at the Academy during the teacher lunch break instead of at one of their homes taking the day off. Iruka insisted he wanted to work, but that didn’t mean Kakashi had to not see him all day.

He has the sunflowers with him, feeling silly carrying them, but not wanting to show up empty handed.

Kakashi knocks on Iruka’s classroom door and slips in without waiting for an answer. The rising irritation on Iruka’s face vanishes when he locks eyes with Kakashi.

“Happy birthday,” he says, holding out the sunflowers to Iruka. He’s glad his mask covers most of his face, because seeing Iruka’s face light up is amplifying his own blush.

Iruka pulls down Kakashi’s mask and kisses him, so dizzyingly casual that it makes Kakashi’s heart stutter in his chest.

“Thank you,” Iruka breathes. 

I love you, Kakashi thinks, and swallows it down. Saying it now won’t help him.

He kisses Iruka again and adjusts his mask so it’s back in place. Iruka takes the sunflowers and sets them on his desk, beside an assortment of tchotchkes. 

No card, though, that Kakashi can see. Iruka follows his gaze to the desk and flushes. “Some of my students heard it was my birthday.”

“You’re a good sensei,” Kakashi says. “They should be getting you gifts.”

Iruka elbows him, but there’s no sting in it.

“Are we still on for tonight?” Kakashi asks, voice dropping. Iruka smiles at him, and kisses his cheek.

“A few more hours of work, and then I’m all yours.”

Maybe Tsunade is in the office and can give him a physical. The amount of stress his heart is under can’t be normal. It might jump from his chest in a fit of sparks.

*

Kakashi shows up at Iruka’s with an Ichiraku takeout bag in one hand and a wrapped present in the other, the one he’s had stored in a seal in the back of his closet since he purchased it.

Iruka opens the door in what Kakashi thinks must be Iruka’s favorite yukata - or maybe it’s his favorite to see Iruka wearing, because he always seems so comfortable.

“You already gave me a present,” Iruka says, eyeing Kakashi’s full hands, and gesturing back in the apartment to the sunflowers sitting in a vase.

“I got a special dispensation from the Hokage,” Kakashi says, clearing his throat.

Iruka’s eyebrows shoot up his face. “For what, exactly?”

“To get you two gifts, obviously.” He touches his lips to Iruka’s forehead, smiling as Iruka sputters.

“I suppose three if you count Ichiraku,” Kakashi says, resting his hand on his chin. “But if you don’t want them…”

Iruka steps in, eyes gleaming, and if Kakashi wasn’t a highly trained shinobi, he might have fallen from the ferocity of the movement. “I didn’t say that.”

“Then let’s have dinner.”

*

He lasts through dinner and Iruka opening his present (a fancy, multi purpose set of handmade pens for grading and seals) before he can’t take it anymore. There’s no bright, sparkle laden card anywhere around the apartment either.

He tries for casual: “didn’t you get a birthday card?”

It’s not at all, missing by more than a mile, but Iruka doesn’t call him out on it.

“Oh, the card?” Iruka says. “You mean the one Naruto set on fire as he tried to hand it to me?”

Kakashi blinks, his Sharingan trying to conjure a memory it doesn’t have.

“I suppose?” Kakashi says, resting his hand atop Iruka’s own. The soft smile that tugs at Iruka’s lips still makes Kakashi weak.

If Naruto set it on fire, then Kakashi is in the clear. Iruka won’t have seen what he wrote, and Kakashi can ignore the idea of love until Iruka mentions it.

“The fire only got the top corner, though,” Iruka continues. “Almost all of the card survived.”

Kakashi did not sign the corner. He very deliberately wrote in the middle of the card.

“Why? Did you want to see it? It’s in my bag,” Iruka says, body shifting.

“Don’t!” Kakashi says, louder than he intends, startling the both of them. “I mean… that’s okay.”

“You know,” Iruka says, twining their fingers together, “we’ve been together over a year.”

“Oh?” Kakashi says. Like he doesn’t keep a tally in his head of all the good things in his life, the being Iruka’s friend category morphing into lovers, necessitating its own, new, fragile count. 

“Mmhmm,” Iruka says. “Because I remember wishing on last year’s birthday candles that you would stay. We’d only had a handful of dates.”

They didn’t kiss until the third one, Kakashi thinks, and he remembers the way Iruka blushed when Anko teasingly asked if Kakashi was giving him a private birthday gift.

His skin is itchy, nerves tingling along the surface, as Kakashi again imagines Iruka reading the card. “Your wish came true, then.” 

Iruka hums, and slips their hands apart in order to maneuver Kakashi’s arm around him. This is a softness in Kakashi’s life he never imagined he could have, let alone for this long. 

“I read the card,” Iruka says, nestling into Kakashi’s side, “and I love you too.”

He takes a breath, lets it unfurl into his lungs, before exhaling it back into the room. “When I realized what I’d written…” Kakashi says. “I didn’t want to scare you off.” 

“Never,” Iruka says, twisting enough so that they can kiss. “Not over this.”

**Author's Note:**

> the title is from a taylor swift song, it just happened that way. which i obvi don't own nor do i own naruto
> 
> i took the basic idea of signing a card with love unintentionally from an episode of kim's convenience, in case that sounded familiar. that's really the only resemblance it bears!
> 
> ty for reading !! :)


End file.
